Hybrid hyper Porsche 918 Spyder

We now know the final specifications of the Porsche 918 Spyder and they confirm that the plug-in hybrid hypercar will be the fastest, most powerful and most fuel efficient vehicle in Porsche’s history, that’s a hard title to earn, especially for a hybrid.

According to Porsche the 918 Spyder was designed and developed from the ground up and around its innovative hybrid drive propulsion system.

The powerplant of the 918 is a 4.60litre V8 derived from the LMP2 RS Spyder racecar, capable of getting to 9150rpm. Generating 447kW and 530Nm, this engine produces the most power per litre of any naturally aspirated unit in the history of the company, easily leaving the Carrera GT in its wake.

The powertrain has a new ‘top pipe’ tailpipe design, which expels hot exhaust gases via the shortest route possible.

The V8 is coupled to a 115kW electric motor in a parallel hybrid layout which means that drive can be channeled to the rear axle in a variety of ways, either from each engine individually or from both of them.

In order to work with this new design, the Spyder’s seven-speed dual-clutch automatic ‘PDK’ transmission underwent a serious redesign, now including it being flipped upside-down in order to create a lower mounting position, which in turn lead to lowering the entire car’s centre of gravity.

The electric energy for the electric motors is stored in a lithium-ion battery made up of 312 individual cells. Depending on the method of charging you can completely recharge them in 25 minutes or four hours.

All of this translates into an overall hybrid system output of 653kW of power and more than 800Nm of torque.

Full-out the Spyder can get from zero to 100km/h in 2.8 seconds and reaching 200km/h will require 7.9 seconds.

Using a Spyder prototype in September 2012 Porsche recorded a 7min14sec lap around the Nurburgring in Germany.